Opinion | Features

In this guest post, Nick Fawbert highlights what YouTube’s rules for branded content mean for advertisers and multi-channel networks.
There was something of an inevitability about last week’s dismay over YouTube’s ‘clarification’ on the fees payable for branded content on YouTube’s channels. No commercially viable major platform is likely to offer free access to valuable audiences in perpetuity.

In this guest post, Anthony Freedman argues that media agencies will find it harder than they think to shift into public relations territory because it requires an entirely different culture.
Like a lot of people, I noticed the coverage surrounding Mat Baxter’s reveal of UM’s new “Creative Connections Agency” positioning last week.
It started with a piece in Mumbrella provocatively headlined “Media agencies aren’t our competitors” and continued the following day after Mat was goaded into stating UM “won’t be entering media agency awards any more”.
For anyone who didn’t read the stories, the gist of it is this; UM is no longer a media agency, it’s a ‘connections company’ that is embracing earned and owned media, and thus will herein compete with the likes of R/GA, Google and (closest to my heart) One Green Bean.

Amid the ongoing hype around content marketing Mark Yeow argues agencies and clients are getting too bogged down in the detail and need to look at content more broadly.
Our industry’s fixation on content marketing is keeping us from seeing the bigger picture.
The power of content extends far beyond lead generation, conversion, and other measures of marketing ROI. It is, perhaps the critical ingredient of any brand – essential to the vision of any discipline involved in creativity or communication, and indicative of their healthiness and longevity.

Streaming services have been getting a lot of headlines of late. OMD's Jeremy Gavin looks at what impact such services will have on evolving the television as a medium.
The Netflix beast is a product of its environment.

A curious mind is a prerequisite for being a creative. So why don't more youngsters entering the creative world ask questions asks Will Clark.
As a junior creative one of the most powerful creative tools is already at your disposal. Curiosity can be a crucial tool when starting work in an industry you know very little about. After my first few years in advertising I have come to realise the full potential of being a curious creative.
Fresh out of design college and AWARD school, I was ready to get stuck into the world of real briefs, real clients and real award potential. However I quickly discovered that the world of advertising is vastly different to the picture that we often paint in our minds before getting there.

Following the expose of blooding and other practices in greyhound racing last week Damian Madden looks at what the sport needs to do to regain public trust.
As an animal lover, and somebody who has been to the dog track occasionally, I was abhorred when I saw the Four Corner’s footage earlier this week of greyhound trainers ‘blooding’ their dogs using live animals.
Watching the fallout in the days that followed I began to wonder if greyhound racing could recover from this catastrophic blow. Has its brand been damaged beyond repair?

Today David Thodey announced he is retiring as CEO of Telstra after five years in the role. Richard Curtis who worked with the telco during his time with Interbrand, explains Thodey's role in rebuilding one of Australia's biggest brands.
Two experiences bookend recollections of my time working with Telstra, over a seven-year period in which I worked with three different marketing teams.
“Didn’t we do the brand last year?” was how one Telstra executive put it, somewhat taken aback by the idea that the Telstra brand might evolve, let alone have implications for his own business unit’s activities.

After predicting the winner of the Best Picture Oscar two years in a row using data Bryan Melmed puts his reputation on the line for a third time.

Our audience data and insights accurately predicted the best picture Oscar winner in 2013 and 2014. So it is possibly foolhardy to put our neck on the line again but as the saying goes, go hard or go home so I’m here to tell you that Birdman will win. Or at least this is what the data suggests. And here is why.

D&AD CEO Tim Lindsay argues scam is a disease and doing work to just win awards is worth nothing.
You would expect us to say this, but it has been an exciting year at D&AD. With the help of the Glue Society, Google and others we’ve brought New Blood to Australian shores for the first time, launched our new NowCreate programme and forged new partnerships with creative organisations around the world – such as AWARD - to enable us to better support the global creative community. It has been a good year.
However, as much as we’d like to focus on all the positives about our wonderful business, it’s important we don’t stick our head in the sand and ignore the more difficult stuff.

UM is shifting its focus from being the Big Boutique to the Creative Connections Agency. CEO Mat Baxter and chief strategy officer Sophie Price sat down with Nic Christensen to explain why the new positioning is more than just semantic, how it has torn up its remuneration model and why the traditional media agency focus on paid media is broken.
Say what you want about Mat Baxter, the iconoclastic CEO of UM knows how to generate a headline.

Navigating celebrity ambassador agreements can be difficult, with several high profile agreements ending badly in recent years. Here Stephen von Muenster and his team give some tips on what to look out for when drafting the legal terms.
Personalities who become brand ambassadors can be a powerful marketing tool for brands. From celebrities to social media influencers, they have the potential to make brands and products relatable and accessible, increasing exposure and successfully driving sales.
Unfortunately for brands, their fairytale relationship with an ambassador doesn’t always end happily ever after.

Brands are increasingly cashing in on the popularity of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras in an attempt to lure the pink dollar with the likes of ANZ's GAYTMs leading the charge, writes Robert Burton-Bradley.

Listicles, quizzes and cat videos might be the flavour of the moment for content marketing, but it's only through in-depth long form content brands can really engage customers argues Atomic 212's Richard Quinn.
In today’s time-starved world, people just don’t have time to read longer content items. Give them short, quick snippets which can be quickly digested, like snacks on the run.
Or so you think.
In truth there is substantial evidence pointing to the contrary, which could have significant implications for your content marketing strategy.

Recently Prime Minister Tony Abbott was criticised for not being a good enough salesman for his policies. Here Elliot Epstein looks at how politicians could improve their sales technique to their electorate.
Law, Unions, Engineering, Journalism, Small Business, Academia and Agriculture have all delivered people to politics.
But the world of high stakes senior sales professionals, steeped in the art and science of winning complex, competitive multi-million dollar deals has not regularly supplied our parliaments with its exquisitely skilled members.

The Mumbrella Awards – something to get stressed about

It is now 16 years since I felt the first exquisite stress of organising an industry awards event.

In 1996, standing backstage before giving a welcome speech to 1300 doctors was one of the most stressful five minutes of my life. I physically shook. Having got through it, the next year I got cocky, and did the whole thing without notes.

Since then, I’ve been involved in six awards events for doctors, two for British media agencies, launched one for the Middle East ad industry and I helped lead the first three years of the B&T Awards.

But the most stressful hour of my life came when we presented the Mumbrella Awards for the first time back in 2009. For idiotic reasons I now forget, it struck me that a good way to do it was as a live video stream, with no autocue and only a mariachi band to fill any awkward silence. The highly edited video below of OMD winning the media agency of the year category makes it look a lot slicker than it actually was.

First, we’ve combined the Mumbrella Awards with those run by our sister title Encore magazine.

Second, we’ve widened the level of industry involvement in the judging, including appointing a chairman of our juries. I’m glad to announce that this will be Mark Buckman, chief marketing officer of Telstra.

The judging will be a two-step shortlisting and final round process. One innovation for creative agency of the year is that the jury will visit the finalist agencies in person which is, I believe, a first for this market.

Our jury will mainly be drawn from the ranks of marketers.

In an industry that is crowded with awards, it is important that any awards are not only meaningful to win, but have a point of difference.

I believe we’re going to do that. There are several categories that are new – not only to the Mumbrella Awards but to the local industry.

We’ve tried to create some categories that reflect the qualities that all of the best industry players will aspire to. And some of these categories will see challenges beyond the traditional agency scene – from the likes of media owners and marketing teams.

Another is for company culture. We also specifically have categories for best use of data, for innovation and for insight.

And of course we do also have agency of the year categories, media team and media brand categories, and recognition for marketing tream of the year.

Another difference this time round, will be that the winner of ad of the year will genuinely be able to boast that they have made Australia’s favourite ad. After our expert panel shortlists the entries, they will go out to rigorous market research to reveal the public’s choice as Australia’s favourite ad.

One thing I have picked up over the years is that I can guarantee there will always be controversies.

But I can also guarantee that it will be a fair fight, and we’ll work hard to help our jury get to the best.

Comments

Smile, slow down… smile, slow down…..
Whoops, hope I didn’t just give away your top tip!
Had the pleasure of being there (with none of the pressure) in 1996 and hope to be with you again in September!

MIke
5 Jul 12
11:06 am

Great award categories. However the Bravery award’s scoring criteria caught my eye.
Maybe there should be an award for good English?

“Learnings” ????? I think the word they’re looking for is “lessons”.

Learnings isn’t a word – unless one has English as a 2nd or 3rd language in which case, it’s excusable.
If “learnings” was right, we wouldn’t have lunch – we’d have “eatings”.
No thoughts, but “thinkings”. You get the drift.

Braveheart
5 Jul 12
2:02 pm

Here’s an idea for your bravery award.Give it to someone whose bravery was funded with their own money and not their clients.

mumbrella
5 Jul 12
2:17 pm

Hi Braveheart,

We certainly would welcome entires from clients, or joint entries from clients and agencies.

Mumbrella is bound by the standards of practice of the Australian Press Council. If you believe the standards may have been breached, you may approach Mumbrella itself or contact the council by email at info@presscouncil.org.au or by phone (02) 9261 1930.For further information see www.presscouncil.org.au